bierkergaard

Heading to NYC on Tuesday night. I am ramping myself up by watching the video Empire State of Mind . Many of my fondest recollections of Christmas and the Christmas season come from New York City. My grandparents lived in Queens. The Christmas countdown officially started in my heart's chronometer when seeing Santa wave to the crowd in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Every precious second...tick, tick, tick till Dec. 25. In 1968, my family spent a magical Christmas in NYC. My older brother Mike got all worked up that my grandparents didn't have a chimney for Santa to climb down to give us gifts...the adults telling him that they would leave the front door ajar didn't assuage him. He needed a chimney. So, my Opa (kraut for Grandfather) bought a faux chimney mantle piece. My brother was satisfied that met the Santa spec, regardless that there was no actual chimney going up to the roof. I figured chimney or not, Santa could come up with a way to deliver the gifts...I thi...

I would say one of the most glaring contrast in my nature from youth until now as a middle aged man is that whereas--in my days of yore youth--I resisted taking out the trash, now I embrace it as a cathartic activity; giving me a sense of completion and closure, which is pretty much opposite how my life goes most of the time. Usually, I kind of wait to see what happens in my day-to-day, because often I don't know what is coming, especially true in my job as a school counselor. Enforced flexibility...if you don't bend, you break. Yes it is interesting and exciting always, and just a bit stressful. So, when I see the trash can brimming, I hardly dawdle in pulling the red cord of the refuse white bag and dispatch the trash into the outer darkness. My own Gehenna. Take care of business, take it out, don't delay. Act now. It gives me profound satisfaction. As a kid, this chore caused me to delay until the decay and the smell and heaping overflow compelled action. It was one o...

Yesterday was the day was when John Lennon was assassinated 30 years ago. I don't recall where I was or what I was doing when I heard the news...the Beatles were not a band a paid a lot of attention to when I was in high school. Only until I became older, have I come to appreciate how their acclaim was truly deserved. Something about their music resonates in a way the very little else does. In reading over the various pieces yesterday about John Lennon, I was surprised to learn in the 1970's, he dabbled seriously with the Christian faith, ultimately dropping his engagement. But it was more than just a one night conversion...he claimed to be born-again and even struck up a back and forth correspondence with Oral Roberts the Elder. No fooling. Seems, because of his fame, Lennon stayed inside a lot and watched televangelists. In a sad irony, Lennon sought to distance himself from fame whereas his assassin Mark David Chapman sought fame through an infamous act. Fame is not only ...

No, I am not going to write a piece about Santa but I did want to be seasonal. Yesterday, besides bottling my Belgian Quad and doing laundry, I was updating my "Lists." I am an inveterate list-maker. To some, it might look like a manifestation of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). It is not; it actually something that keeps me from being OCD. You want to see me become a compulsive nail-biting, cuticle pulling, hand-washer? Take away my list-making. I keep a Saturday To-Do List (Saturdays are the day to tie up loose ends and do work that needs to be done...six days ye shall work type of thing), a Seasonal To-Do List updated every quarter, and a general Home To-Do list of things that I just need to be mindful of...like how much Comcast rates are going up and my desperate quest to find another way to have internet service. I also keep a Work To-Do list at school...alphabetical by task and then student last name. That came quite in handy for my Sabbatical replacement last year...

The state of Israel is experiencing one of its worst droughts in history. A fire is presently engulfing the Mt. Carmel region of her land. Reforestation and lack of rain is a bad combination. Here is some video. As a historical parallel that is hard to dismiss as inconsequential, Mt. Carmel was the location of the "Firefight" between Elijah and Ahab, really God vs. Baal. Human actors in a divine drama (see 1 Kings 18). It is always necessary to be cautious when trying to connect the dots of the Almighty's actions to events on earth, yet the Bible is quite clear over and over again that God acts in real time in creation, not just providentially behind the scenes. If He appears to not be active, be careful in that conclusion. He is in the Fire. Recently, Lina and I watched the film Defiance about Jews in a forest fighting back against Nazi occupiers . It is based on a true story. God, in the film, is not portrayed as taking up the cause of the Jews in the sense that He ...

In a conversation with my wife the other night, she mentioned that the current hotel where she is staying in Mexico City lacks swag. On the other hand, the "W" hotel in New York City apparently has mad swag. A black girl at school the other day called me "Mad Tall" so now I am using mad as a mega-modifier. I went to the definitive Urban Dictionary to cop me a definition of swag since it is a word that we don't use much in my line of work with limited budgets, where we buy our own pens and paper to get stuff that actually works. We are swag-deprived. Here is the definition: appearance, style, or the way he or she presents themselves. The alternate definitions on Urban Dictionary get, let us say, more carnal as we descend down the page. One of the paradoxical realities of the Gospel is that Jesus, God, the epitome of authority, power, and possessions, comes to earth as a man and forgoes His swag. Philippians 2:7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he to...

The other night I was cleaning up the kitchen with Lina. She went outside to close up the grill and I continued to wash and dry the plates, pots, and the utensils. In the interim when Lina was outside, I cracked a large red Betty Crocker plastic spoon (see item on left). The clock ticked slowly... When she returned, I confessed my carelessness and expressed my sorrow. As of a couple of years ago, I might have said something along the lines of, "It is just a spoon" or "I didn't mean it" or something else less than sympathetic. Instead, I said "I am sorry" and I meant it. There can often be a strategic and tactical reason to apologize even if we don't mean it, but better in God's eyes to not pretend. Jesus was harsh on hypocrites. Best to be truly sorry. The spoon has been with Lina for over 13 years when she was 24, living in Minneapolis, and working for General Mills...all things I did not know until the spoon was broken. As such, the spoon ...